Pictures: Pagan-Cult Worship Objects Found

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Pictures: Pagan-Cult Worship Objects Found

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Pagan-Cult Objects

About 200 pagan-cult artifacts, including small ritual stands pierced with mysterious holes (pictured), have been discovered in a rock hollow in northern Israel, archaeologists announced in early June.

The objects—about a hundred of them fully intact, including a cup sculpted with a human face, oil vessels, and various tableware—were found at the Tel Qashish site.

Many of the 3,500-year-old objects, such as the ritual stands, were likely used during idol worship in the local temple, according to Israel Antiquities Authority dig team members Edwin van den Brink and Uzi Ad.

"On top of these stands were placed either food offerings or incense for a pleasant scent during worship of the god or goddess in the temple," van den Brink said. "We don't yet know the reason for the [holes]."

The Tel Qashish site was destroyed during the Late Bronze Age (about 1550 to 1200 B.C.), and van den Brink suggested some artifacts had been buried for safekeeping before the violence.

—Mati Milstein in Tel Aviv, Israel

Photograph courtesy Assaf Peretz, Israel Antiquities Authority

Rock-Hollow Discovery

Archaeologist Uzi Ad (right) helps to remove a ritual stand from a rock hollow during a dig of pagan-cult artifacts in northern Israel.

"There is nothing in the assemblage of vessels which gives any clue as to who was worshiped in this temple," said Ad's colleague, archaeologist Edwin van den Brink.

Van den Brink said many of the ritual items were imported from Mycenae, Greece, a powerful civilization that peaked between 1400 and 1200 B.C.

He suspects that the objects were used during idol worship in the local temple. But another theory, he said, is that the sacred items were ritually buried when they were no longer needed in the temple—a custom also practiced in modern-day Judaism.

Photograph by Sebastian Scheiner, AP

Man's or Woman's Face?

Whether a cup recently found in Israel (pictured) bears the image of a woman or a man "depends upon the beholder," said archaeologist Edwin van den Brink.

"The face was part of a vessel in which libations were offered to the god or goddess of that temple. It is not assumed to be a face of the god or goddess, but is probably of one of the worshipers who gave this as a gift to the gods."

Photograph courtesy Assaf Peretz, Israel Antiquities Authority

Preserving Artifacts

Israel Antiquities Authority conservator Elisheva Kamaisky (pictured in the authority's offices in Jerusalem) was brought to the archaeological site to do the first evaluation of the pagan-cult goods.

"We are now cleaning and restoring the vessels," archaeologist Edwin van den Brink said. "Then we will conduct all sorts of analyses ... which will allow us to see where the vessel[s] came from."

Other tests will analyze residue found on the inside of the vessels' walls to determine whether they held, for example, oil or honey.

"We will get a pretty good idea about the daily cult within the temple," said van der Brink.

The pagan temple has not yet been discovered, he added, but it's likely located about 330 feet (100 meters) away from the rock hollow.